Monday, September 16, 2013

Tarnished Silver & Hydrangeas

I was out one day picking up a bed frame one day that I had found on face book that I wanted for my master bedroom, which is a project that will be getting done at a later date. It just happened that the couple that was selling the bed were moving from the island to the mainland, so they were selling anything that they did not have an immediate use for. I had already purchased the bed, two end tables and a copper wash tub so I asked if she had anything else that I might be interested in that she had not listed yet. She showed me some misc. kitchen wares (I have a very small kitchen) so unless they are amazing I am not in the market . for more kitchen stuff. What she did have was this little silver candelabra. Now usually that is pretty common but this one has a flower container with a flower frog in the centre that can be converted into a third candle holder. I was enchanted immediately. The price only $10.00. Ohhh magic.

This is the candelabra with the flower bowl together.

This is the candelabra ready to hold three tall tapers. It looks nice with candles, and I always love the odd numbers. The only taper candles I have on hand are some that I had hand painted a few years ago.

I am in love with this candelabra. I do not know about anyone else but I like my silver with a little tarnish too. Not totally black, just a little tarnish. Just so it looks like pewter. So I had it home for about an hour and out came the flower arranging tools (wire cutters and scissors) and some silk hydrangeas.

When you pull apart the flower bowl it looks like this. The little slots in the lid of the bowl are what hold the flowers in place. They make it really easy to keep the arrangement in a nice round shape and you do not need any tape or anything else to hold them.

I used the wire cutters to cut the silk flowers from the long stems into shorter stems. I cut all of them to a length of between three to four inches. I also had a stem of little white berry type flowers that I also cut into short stems too. I love it when a project is this easy and all you need is some wire cutters and a couple of stems of silk flowers to end of with a beautiful arrangement. How good life can be some days.

I used the scissors to remove the little tags that are sometimes attached to silk flowers.

This little candelabra will hold either fresh or silk flower, I opted for the ease of silk, for special dinners I will buy fresh , you know thanks giving, Christmas, Easter. These days I find some of the silks are such good quality you can hardly tell the difference as long as you cut them off the stems.
As you can see it all goes together very easy. Simple Homey Slightly Elegant. Just the way I like it.

This was a very easy floral arrangement as are most hydrangea arrangements. Just arrange the hydrangea's around the bowl evenly to fill all spaces. Then use the little white berry type pieces to fill in the gaps and you are done. This took no more than five minutes. It is so easy you can take it apart if you want to use the flower bowl for another occasion and put it back together later. Just throw the flowers in a box to keep them. I know most people are not like me and have hoards of silk flowers and berry stems in buckets just waiting to be arranged but this took one large hydrangea stem and two white berry stems, in case you have to buy some thing. These could also be done with dried flowers and stems just as easy.

Now you might have noticed that my tapered candles are hand painted too. This is very easy to do. I use DecoArt Candle Painting medium to mix with my acrylic paint.

I have used this Medium for years, and to be honest I am not sure where you can get it anymore I have had mine for so long. It is so easy to use, I hope you can still find it. You just mix equal amounts of medium with any acrylic paint and you are ready to paint on your wax candles. You can paint on soaps with this too, but then your soaps are only decorative. I do not have much use for decorative only things so I have never painted on soaps. I usually paint freehand, just little flower and vine type designs, but there is no reason you could not use stencils or whatever it takes that you are comfortable with. I like to do these with my candles at Christmas. Just some little red flowers, or some holly leaves and red berries. There are no limits.